Good Argumentative Essay On Future Transportation Plans

Introduction

The transportation system is a significant lifeline for any society. The reason for this is the health, operation, and economic well-being of any country or city is, to a great extent, revealed and evaluated from the condition, coverage and type of its transportation network. The development of a good transportation system should consider the safety of the passengers, reduce traffic traveling from one place to another, and increase mobility of the passengers (Vuchic 2013, p. 1).
At present, there are a number of modes of transport available for the movement of passengers and goods traffic. The most frequent difficulties that arise when considering the transportation mode to select or which transportation mode is cheapest, which one is safe, which one is most efficient, and which one is most reliable. The selection of the transportation mode also takes into consideration the connection to the desired places between the origin and the destinations. Future transportation systems should, for this reason, make a provision for passenger safety, reliability, and efficiency in their design and construction. Making such provisions will ensure a city is more dynamic, lively, vibrant, and able to deal with future transportation problems. In order to certify a safe and efficient future transportation system, it is imperative to employ a lot of efforts to make a feasible, cost-effective and environmentally-friendly transportation plan. Such a transportation plan will be conducive to sustainable development of the future city.
The transportation plan consists of the application of science and art, where a great deal of judgment combined with its technical elements is required to arrive at a meaningful decision. This decision will help in developing transportation infrastructure facilities for the community. The art of transportation planning is emerging quite rapidly, which reflects technological development along with the community values. The purpose of transportation planning is to estimate the present, as well as the future travel demands for an area. It will ensure a safe and smooth movement of all types of traffic.
In the context explained above, this paper seeks to analyze some the proposed future transportation plans and transportation systems based on their safety to passengers, reliability, cost, and efficiency. The paper will, for this reason, address transportation planning, the basic principles and fundamentals of transportation planning. The paper also considers the current transportation practices and policies, its problems, and possible solutions.

Background of Transportation in Cities

Urban modes of transport extend back thousands of years. Over this long period, all cities were dependent on walking to get from one place to another. Another way that was used in the past to get goods and passengers from one place to another was the horse-drawn cart, which was also a slow form of transportation traveling at approximately 5 kilometers per hour. The historical cities, for this reason, remained small and dense. Such cities are also referred to as walking cities (Schiller et al. 2003, p. 45). The walking cities were characterized by narrow, winding streets that had a provided for an inherently egalitarian transport system.
It can be established that the transportation system was cheap by using the cost, safety, reliability, and efficiency criteria to analyze such a city’s transportation system. The reason for this is that there were no costs of fuel involved in animals were used to get around the city. The safety of the passengers was also guaranteed since there were low risks of accidents. However, the transportation systems of the walking cities didn’t guarantee reliability and efficiency. The transportation system was inefficient since they were slow and congested causing high traffic. Such a transportation system couldn’t be relied upon since it could not ensure delivery of urgent goods.

The Current Transportation Systems

The modern cities are larger than the traditional cities since there is ease of transportation. Modern transportation systems are also more reliable and efficient. It clearly shows that transportation is an integral part of the urban development process. The modern transportation systems have played an important role in economic, industrial, social, and cultural development all around the world. It has been as a result of modern transportation planning.
Transportation planning is, for this reason, one of the most important and permanent features of the physical plan for a city or metropolitan area. The task of planning, designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining transportation facilities in urban areas is increasingly becoming complex. The complexity may be as a result of the rapidly changing social demographics in urban areas.
At present, most transportation systems in cities across the world are marked by constant traffic nearly the whole day. It can, for this reason, be established that most transportation systems in most cities are inefficient since they are unable to ferry most of its users from one location to another. The cost of transportation in most cities is usually high and the reliability of the transportation system problematic.

The Future Transportation Systems

Reducing the cost of transportation, increasing the safety of passengers, and increasing the reliability and efficiency of the transportation system are the main goals of the transportation plan. For example, most of the transportation studies carried out in India was directed towards the preparation of traffic interchanges, flyovers, and parking facilities to encourage the movement of vehicular traffic. In future, the metropolitan regions of India aim at increasing reliability and efficiency of its transportation system. The safety of the passengers, which is usually low, also will be improved once the implementation of the transportation plan commences (Kumar & Maitri 2012, p. 68). It clearly shows that the future transportation systems should consider the safety of passengers, increase reliability and efficiency of the system, and reduce cost of transportation.
Smith (2014, p. 2) suggests that London can best be served by the SkyCycle in the future. The SkyCycle is a proposed transportation system for the City of London, which will be elevated above the existing train tracks. The SkyCycle will cover a total of 219 kilometers, with a width of 15 meters, and able to be accessed by over 200 ramps though out the city. In order to access the SkyCycle, users will only pay £1, which could reduce the cost of transportation by bus, subway and personal vehicle to a great extent. It is estimated that the transportation system will be able to accommodate up to 400,000 riders during the rush hours of the day and also save approximately 30 minutes of the travel time (Smith 2014, p. 1).
The idea of a suspended bike route was first partly implemented in California in the year 1890. The California Cycleway was planned to be a 14 kilometer timber decking connecting Pasadena and Los Angles. The Project covered only 2 kilometers and was never completed because of financial constraints and the rise of the Model T Ford later that century (Wainwright 2014, p. 2).
Analyzing the SkyCycle project using the cost, safety, reliability, and efficiency criteria, the SkyCycle may be a better alternative to other modes of transportation since. The reason for this is because the transportation system would be cheaper than other modes of transportation in London such as the subway or the bus. The safety of the riders will also be guaranteed since there could be a reduction of accidents where cyclists get hit by vehicles on ground roads. The SkyCycle could also be more reliable and efficient way of getting around the city of London since it could reduce the time taken from one point to another by approximately 29 minutes. Since reducing the cost of transportation, increasing the safety of passengers, and increasing the reliability and efficiency of the transportation system are the main goals of future transportation systems, the SkyCycle could be the best transportation alternative for London (Webb 2013, p. 1).

Conclusion

The main aim of transportation planning is to ensure the need for mobility for all sections of people in the society is addressed. Urban transportation planning has gained importance in the recent past, primarily due to the manner in which the urbanization is taking place in different countries. In urban areas where space is limited, there is a need to ensure that transportation system can ferry the high numbers of people from one place to another. Such a transportation system should be less costly, safe, reliable, and efficient. For this reason, the development of future transportation systems should adequately meet the four factors to ensure they meet the needs of the urban population.

References

Kumar, S & Maitri, J 2012, Transportation Planning. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
Schiller, P, Bruun, E & Jeffrey, K 2003, An Introduction to Sustainable Tranportation: Policy, Planning and Implementation. John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Smith, E 2014, New York’s High Line was the city planner’s Holy Grail. SkyCycle could be the answer for London. Available from: < http://www.newstatesman.com/2014/09/new-york-s-high-line-was-city-planner-s- holy-grail-skycycle-could-be-answer-london>. [3rd October 2014].
Vuchic, V 2013, Urban Transit Systems and Technology. John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Wainwright, O 2014, Norman Foster unveils plans for elevated 'SkyCycle' bike routes in London . Available from: < http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture- design-blog/2014/jan/02/norman-foster-skycycle-elevated-bike-routes-london>. [2nd January 2014].
Webb, S 2013, The bicycle highway: Plans unveiled for £220m 'Skycycle' that lets riders commute far above the railways of London. Available from: < http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2530727/The-bicycle-highway-Plans- unveiled-220m-Skycycle-lets-riders-commute-far-railways-London.html>. [29th December 2013].